Research on five-axis flank milling of convex edge surface with a concave cutter

Convex edge surfaces are always encountered in industry, such as the leading and trailing edges of turbine blades. Concave cutter can be used to flank machine such surfaces. The fundamental theory is given by investigating the conjugation between a concave cutter and a cylindrical surface. By analyzing the projection of the grazing curve in the cross-section plane, it finds that convex edge surface with various cross-section radiuses can be machined with a concave cutter by adjusting the cutter orientation. Experimental verification is given to illustrate the proposed method. Compared to cylindrical flat-end cutter, concave cutter can improve the machining efficiency greatly.